The last Port Orford Christmas Bird Count of the 20th century found 131 species spending the winter in our area — our third highest tally, down from the record 140 species located last year. Total numbers of birds were also down to 10,000 from last year’s total of 15,000. Fewer individuals of most species were seen this year. The notable good thing regarding this otherwise disturbing fact was a reduction from the 3045 European Starlings tallied last year to a “mere” 857 this year. They seem to have been partially replaced by Red-winged and Brewer’s blackbirds, whose numbers increased from 303 in 1998 to 1006 in ’99.
The most numerous species this year was American Robin with a total of
1368 tallied, very similar to the 1570 counted last year. The Floras Creek area east of Hwy. 101 wasn’t surveyed this year which accounts for the drop in Robin numbers.
Species seeing a significant reduction in numbers include raptors (24 in ’99 vs. 48 in ’98), Coots (29 in ’99 vs. 194 in ’98), Snipe (55 in ’99 vs. 158 in ’98), Killdeer (97 in ’99 vs. 1805 in ’98), alcids (11 in ’99 vs. 182 in ’98 — possibly a result of extremely poor visibility due to coastal fog in ’99), Fox sparrows (53 in ’99 vs. 290 in ’98), Golden-crowned Sparrows (37 in ’99 vs. 110 in ’98), White-crowned Sparrows (196 in ’99 vs. 325 in ’98) and Song Sparrows (281 in ’99 vs. 376 in ’98).
Perhaps the mild weather during December ’99 resulted in many of these birds remaining in cooler climes. At least it made for a very pleasant CBC.
Some of the more noteworthy birds seen were an Eared Grebe on Floras Lake, 3 Clark’s Grebes in Port Orford, a Eurasian Wigeon in the pastures west of Langlois, a Redhead on Floras Lake, an Oldsquaw in Port Orford, 2 Rhinoceros Auklets off Cape Blanco, and new highs of 29 Black Phoebes, and 24 Horned larks, the latter which were seen in the Floras Lake/New River area.